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The Asbury Park Mayor and Council unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday that ceremoniously supports the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana for adults.

The legislation does not make marijuana legal within city limits but does support activist group Help Not Handcuff’s push for marijuana reform, municipal attorney Frederick Raffetto.

“This is a historic event in New Jersey as this resolution symbolizes the first time a municipality publicly departed from the war on drugs – specifically marijuana prohibition,” said Help Not Handcuffs founder Randy Thompson [shown above]. “This creates an opportunity to have conversation with State and Federal lawmakers about the harms to our communities, children and the wasting of our resources due to marijuana prohibition.”

Among those who voiced support during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting was Trenton registered nurse Ken Wolski, founder and Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of New Jersey.

“[The state’s] medicinal marijuana program is quite a failure,” Wolski said. “It’s only managed to get marijuana to a couple thousand people in over 5½ years. We believe there a hundreds and thousands of people in the state of New Jersey it could benefit marijuana therapy when you consider all of the diseases, symptoms and conditions that it can help.

Help Not Handcuffs, also was supported by the Asbury Park, Jon-Henry Barr, President of the New Jersey Municipal Prosecutors’ Association and spokesperson for New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform.

For more information regarding the Help Not Handcuffs campaign, visit their website, Facebook, or Twitter pages.

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